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I am considering attending seminary in NEPA or NYC. The NEPA seminary is located in South Canaan. We have two children ages 12 and 15 so the school district is important. Also my wife is an administrative assistant/ office manager and will need nearby employment. Many of the married seminary students live in Carbondale/ Simpson. From what I have read here housing is cheap there but the schools are not good. Would Waymart or Honesdale be a better choice? Are there any towns in the area with inexpensive housing and good schools and jobs available?
Also, from what I have gathered the wage situation is not that great. Would my wife be able to make enough to support us? I would be able to work during the summers, but with the class load and other responsibilities of seminary I don't think I could work during the school year. I know we would be struggling and rather poor, but do you think we could survive?
Even if we decide against attending seminary we are still seriously considering relocating to NEPA from south Georgia.
I would agree on NEPA vs. south Georgia. Honesdale is a very nice town and it has the shopping available with a Superwalmart, HD, and other stores for all the everyday needs.
Home prices are not that bad either. Compared to Carbondale I would choose looking in Honesdale. I am not sure about the schools because my kids are all grown up. The pay scale in NEPA is a bit low though. I don't know what the pay scale is in S. Ga. either.
Since Honesdale is smack in the middle of the Pocono resort area summer employment opportunities surely increase.....dovetailing with your availability to work summers.....yet that doesn't guarantee the prospects of your wife's year-round employement
Housing prices in Carbondale tend to be amongst the most inexpensive in the region, but the reason for that is that many of those on the market are in need of exterior cosmetic updating such as new siding or rooves, as well as interior cosmetic updating such as updating kitchens and bathrooms. Yes, these homes are solid, but if you're looking to plunk down $60,000 on a home in Carbondale and laugh all the way to the bank realize that your investment would likely be closer to $100,000 once you spend $40,000 in essential upgrades. These homes weren't necessarily left to decay and become outdated on purpose. In many of these cases these homes were owned by elderly residents who didn't have the financial resources to keep their homes well-maintained and updated but were too "proud" to move into a nursing home or senior citizen high-rise, where they probably belonged. Once they pass away the estate usually gets handed over to offspring in NJ, NY, or other parts of PA, and usually the children want nothing to do with the homes and sell them dirt cheap to investors who will rehabilitate them---some of these may be called "flippers" if you will.
With that being said though the "Pioneer City" of Carbondale gets a worse reputation than it truly deserves. The public school system is amongst the most poorly-performing in Lackawanna County (which might want to make young families like yourselves look elsewhere), but the town itself is just dripping with history and potential. I always drove through town and thought to myself "Ick! What a dump!" However when I walked through the town for several hours one day I sauntered into all of the nooks and crannies my outlook changed for the better. I was pleased to see so many well-kept older homes off the beaten path, as well as so many thriving small mom-and-pop businesses. You might want to check out my //www.city-data.com/forum/north...hoto-tour.html for more information.
Honesdale is part of the Wayne Highlands School District, which has a much better reputation than Carbondale Area. The town proper of Honesdale is home to about 5,000 people and its main drag is wonderful. This is the type of town where motorists still stop to wave pedestrians across the streets at crosswalks and where people will say "Good morning" to you as you pass by them on the sidewalk. You don't see such friendliness like this much here in the more urban Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. As my "auntie" Memoriesbre already mentioned there are plenty of conveniences to get you by on a day-to-day basis in Honesdale, and a 35-minute drive to Dickson City or Scranton will fill in all of the shopping/dining/entertainment gaps perhaps once a month. Here is my photo tour of Honesdale:
I just noticed that this particular tour now has well over 8,000 views, so perhaps you won't be the only new residents to Wayne County.
I personally like the town of Waymart, which lies approximately midway between Carbondale and Honesdale along U.S. Route 6 and is perhaps five minutes from South Canaan, but I've heard mixed reviews of the Western Wayne School District. I LOVE PA lives in Lake Ariel, which is part of this school district, so she might be of better help in that regard.
No matter what you choose, I wish you and your family the best of luck. NEPA's cost-of-living will be higher than South Georgia's but is still below the national average. I have friends who are an unmarried couple and each earn about $11/hr. and are about to purchase a home in Scranton on that combined $22/hr. income, and Scranton's housing prices are higher overall than they are in rural Wayne County, so you should be able to squeak by. Be advised though that home heating fuel is VERY expensive---usually averaging a few hundred dollars per month from November-March.
Welcome in advance to NEPA; we'd be happy to have you and your family here. This area isn't for everyone though. You might even consider renting an inexpensive apartment in Honesdale for a year or so just to see if this is the right area for you before plunking down cash on a home.
OK, out of the towns you mentioned; Honesdale, Waymart and Carbondale - Waymart would be closest to South Canaan.
Waymart is a rural town with all the bare necesssities. It has a lovely main street of a few blocks, with a quaint, small town park. South Canaan and Waymart are in the Western Wayne School District. They have had an undeserrved bad reputation in the past due to a racial incident that was blown out of proportion that received a lot of media attention. A visit to the school district would surely make you see that the school is just fine. My children went to Western Wayne. Waymart is a town that hasn't seen many 'transplants' yet. It consists of mainly locals, as well as South Canaan, which is also rural. Waymart, as small as it is, is also home to 2 prisons. I believe one is a Federal and one is a State prison. I would say, the least amount of available jobs here though, as there really isn't much in Waymart. It is lovely though!
Carbondale, I have heard, does not have the most popular school district. It is an older looking town with older homes, certainly bigger than Waymart, but by no mean a 'city.' I think it is an old coal mining town. I can't really elaborate much on Carbondale, as I m not that familiar with it. I'm sure other posters will give some feedback on Carbondale. Carbondale is 'over the Salem Mountain' from South Canaan. You literally go over a mountain, feeling your climb and decent, and there is a bare few houses along the ride and no phone service. Not a great road in bad weather. It has awesome views, which are usually only enjoyable to the passenger as it is not the type of road to let your eyes wander off! There is a hospital in Carbondale too, and some industrial areas.
Honesdale is the birthplace of the American Railroad, and the setting to the description in the famous Christmas song, "walking in the Winter Wonderland." The author wrote the song about his views in Honesdale! I do beleive there is info. on Honesdale if you do a search on this forum. It is a Beautiful little town with a 'Main Street.' It has 3 big box stores, K-Mart, Walmart & Home Depot. It does have a movie theatre, supermarkets, a number of restaurants as well as all the shops on Main Street, a ski shop, a coffee house, little eateries, a small bowling alley, ice cream, boutiques, second hand stores, as well as the old rail station which still runs etc. It does have a hospital too, Wayne Memorial Hospital. It belongs to the Wayne Highland School District which has a good reputation. Honesdale has a huge number of camps nestled in the outskirts of town that run in the summer months. I love Honesdale too! Lots of beautiful Victorian homes!
I would say that all these areas would have affordable housing, with Carbondale being the most affordable, as you can find an older, smaller home that might need a little fixing up. I wouldn't consider any of these towns tourist towns. While Honesdale might get some tourists, there are no seasonal communities. The wage situation would be the same in all these areas. Our minimum wage is $7.15, in your wife's field, I'm just guessing, but she would be very lucky to find a job paying $9.00 an hour as an office manager. The job situation is not that great here, unfortunately. I really doubt you could support a family of 4 here on one salary, without any other financial aid.
You did say you might be interested in moving here anyway...maybe doing that first and getting settled, and then trying to fit the Seminary in would be another option. I have moved from state to state and know it is hard to get everything all worked out.
Good Luck to You!
Thanks so far for the replies. Relocating is a very big decission and I appreciate all the help I can get in gathering the information needed to make our decission a well informed one.
How long is the drive from Honesdale to South Canaan?
Thanks so far for the replies. Relocating is a very big decission and I appreciate all the help I can get in gathering the information needed to make our decission a well informed one.
How long is the drive from Honesdale to South Canaan?
Acording to Google...about 14.6 miles. A beautiful and scenic ride too. No traffic EVER. Rural roads but well maintained. I love google maps...you can see what type of ride you have by zooming in and selecting the 'satelite' view. Nothing but farmland...you can also see how big Waymart and Honesdale really are. The new Federal Prison in Waymart does not show up on the satelite image. You can't see it from the road anyway. The 'terrain' shows the mountain you go over from South Canaan to Carbondale. Done it quite a lot myself, as my parents have been in the hospital in Carbondale a number of times.
Last edited by I LOVE PA!; 01-10-2008 at 09:39 PM..
Acording to Google...about 14.6 miles. A beautiful and scenic ride too. No traffic EVER. Rural roads but well maintained. I love google maps...you can see what type of ride you have by zooming in and selecting the 'satelite' view. Nothing but farmland...you can also see how big Waymart and Honesdale really are. The new Federal Prison in Waymart does not show up on the satelite image. You can't see it from the road anyway. The 'terrain' shows the mountain you go over from South Canaan to Carbondale. Done it quite a lot myself, as my parents have been in the hospital in Carbondale a number of times.
I've switched from Google Earth over to Microsoft Virtual Earth. It is much more recent (which makes it even cooler!) I've become addicted to that program, as I spent so much time trying to track down friends' and relatives' homes to see what they look like from a satellite. (Yes, I am a stalker!)
The drive through much of Wayne County is very calm, serene, and scenic, with the exception of Indian Orchard where you'll find Honesdale's "ugly" side with the Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc.
SWB, I'm thinking you and I are going to become friends. I found this forum in my constant search to inprove the demographics section of our appraisal reports. There's no information better than meaningful information is what I'd always say (if it didn't sound sooo awkward).
MS Virtual Earth blows GE out of the water in freshness, no doubt about it. I might pique your interest in GE again with this link: GCensus - free online GIS
Adding layers of data into Google Earth is an exception way to describe things more concisely than words can ever do.
I'm not sure hot add html links so I hope I didn't violate any forum rules.
SWB, I'm thinking you and I are going to become friends. I found this forum in my constant search to inprove the demographics section of our appraisal reports. There's no information better than meaningful information is what I'd always say (if it didn't sound sooo awkward).
MS Virtual Earth blows GE out of the water in freshness, no doubt about it. I might pique your interest in GE again with this link: GCensus - free online GIS
Adding layers of data into Google Earth is an exception way to describe things more concisely than words can ever do.
I'm not sure hot add html links so I hope I didn't violate any forum rules.
very informative link
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